who's got a favorite reading list of helicopter/aviation related books they'd like to share?

a few of my Favorites:
1. Chickenhawk
2. 71 Lessons from the sky
3. 9 lives of a bush pilot
4. down to a sunless sea
5. wings over alaska
6. N4 down
7. (a few bell 47 Alaskan/Canadian books) the titles are escaping me...

not all are helicopter related and there's no order of fashion there.
i feel like Orv should write a book at this point with all his amazing posts!

It felt sooo good to get back to flying helicopters after nearly 6 months off helping to nurse my wife back to health following her heart transplant. Our first trip out took us to John Spurling’s fly-in in Westport, OK.
 
We spent the afternoon and following morning there and had a great time visiting with many helicopter-oriented friends. Around noon the following day we pulled out in the motor home and headed for, Tyler Texas, about 100 miles east of Dallas. This area of Eastern Texas is quite beautiful with a number of lakes and trees. My students were a father and his two adult sons who had just completed building their new 162F.
 
We were directed onto the grounds of an incredibly beautiful estate that sits right on the shore of Lake Tyler. We set up the motor home at one of several RV hook-up locations and settled in for the night.
 
The following morning Steve and I began the airworthiness inspection that I always perform prior to flying any home built helicopter. This one was very well built with the help of Darrold Crawford, one of the professional builders that assisted in the construction of new Rotorway kits.

See More photos under Graduates
I was unable to find anything that needed fixing, and that is unusual. Within several hours of entering the hanger, we were firing up the engine and initiating our first training lift-off.
 
This trip was unique in that I was simultaneously instructing 3 students in the same helicopter, none of them had ever had any training in rotorcraft of any type. The training went well but we shortly realized that the water pump seal was developing a leak that made the helicopter unsafe to fly. A call to Robin at the factory and a brand new pump was sent out overnight so that by noon the next day we were able to resume our flight training.
 
The training progressed as planned and on our tenth day, Sunday, Steve, Bret, and Brian all soloed their helicopter.
After our celebration feast Sheila and I packed up the motor home and headed off towards home in the Missouri Ozarks.
We were home for one day while we repacked and then headed off for South Dakota.

Sheila stayed there with her family and I headed off to Michigan to provide several days of Advanced flight training for my student Joe Blair in Saginaw. This would be my third trip to Joe's home, the first was to provide hover training, the second trip was phase II altitude and auto rotation training.
 

See More Joe Blair photo under Cool Rotorway Stuff on my web site (green button at top of page)
 
The airworthiness inspection revealed several airworthiness items that we took care of that first day. Everyone should be sure to do a proper pre-flight inspection before you fly your helicopter. Joe had been flying this 162f for a number of hours and just prior to my arrival he experienced his first emergency auto. While flying at his local airport, the engine quit as the entire electrical system shut down and since the Rotorway engines do not run with magnetos, a power loss will kill the engine. 
 
It turned out that the wire bundle that went up near the inertia switches in front of the main rotor had been rubbing on the sharp edge of the switch bracket causing a dead short. This dead short in the #10 wire from the alternator to the overhead blew the 30 amp fuses and tripped breakers while simultaneously shutting down the electrical to the fuel pumps, both ignitions, and both FADECs resulting in an engine shut-down.

We found the short in the power feed wire and replaced the wire. It was this short that caused me to publish the FATAL FLAW that is present in every factory wire harness. The factory would not address this issue so many Rotorways are still flying with this fatal flaw in their overhead panel. 
 
The items that we discovered on my first inspection of Joe's ship were items that a proper and thorough preflight inspection will find. On the anti-torque pedal linkage viewed from the front inspection panel, we found two of the rod end jamb-nuts had backed off and were no longer locking the steel rod-end threads against the softer aluminum shank that they thread into. If the jamb nut is loose, the steel threads of the rod end can eat away at the sofr aluminum threads of the base causing the rod end to fall out and loss of control of that system. 

There were some wires that had been added since my last visit that needed securing and that took only a few minutes.
 
The horizontal stabilizers were loose and had fore-aft movement that required that the nuts on the spar through-bolts be tightened properly. We also found that the anti-torque pitch control cable that runs through the tail boom was quite loose and was in danger of interfering with the tail rotor power belts.
Once those items were addressed and fixed, we found that the engine adjusting bolt jamb-nut had backed completely off. All of the jamb nuts on your helicopter have the function of locking the steel threads of the bolt or rod end into the threads of the item that the rod end or bolt is threaded into. Without the jamb nut tightly in place, the threads can work against each other causing wear and eventual failure which could be catastrophic should the failure occur in flight.
 
Another issue that we found was with the two steel tangs at the lower end of the slider ball that ride up and down on the main rotor shaft and inside of the doughnut shaped ring (Collective retention ring) that is on the main shaft just above the main thrust bearing . When the collective was in the full up position the tangs came all the way up to the very top of the doughnut ring with none of the tang left inside. If this should come out during flight, most likely while initiating an autorotation recovery, the main rotors could lock in full-up pitch on the main rotor blades with less than desirable results.(See the Control button under hints and tips for my experience with exactly this during flight).
 
The last item that we found was that the male end on the wire that fits into the fuel pump had come out of the socket. It is not visible due to the rubber cap that covers the wire and the fuel pump fitting. We squeezed the connector slightly for a firm secure fit so that the connector would not work it's way loose again. 
 
Once we had the airworthiness items fixed we commenced with Joe's initial flight training.
 
I was at Joe's for the third time and this time we would be doing his cross-country training as well as other advanced maneuvers training. See the Cool Rotorway Stuff area for a photo dialog of this flight under the green button at the top of the page.
 
I had never been to this part of the country in the fall and found that it was quite beautiful, though very chilly. Fortunately Joe
had just finished the doors and we put them to good use.
 
After several days of take-offs, departures, approaches, and flight maneuvers, we planned a 280 mile cross country trip from Saginaw up to Joe’s main residence in Traverse City, Michigan.
 
We had put enough hours on the helicopter that it was now due for the 50 hour maintenance so we got out the manuals and performed all of the items on the check list. It took several hours and we now had a helicopter ready for a serious cross-country trip.
 
The morning was crisp and clear when we departed Saginaw/Brown airport. As we skirted to the East of the city of Saginaw to our right was Saginaw Bay, a part of Lake Huron. The view was breath-taking with the vivid splash of yellows, oranges, and reds that painted the fall landscape below us. I had heard of the must-see fall colors of Michigan but had never expected to see entire forests engulfed in them.
 
We made our mid trip refueling stop in Houghton Lake, Michigan and found out that there is a Rotorway helicopter based there. Taking off we headed north to avoid the restricted areas around Camp Grayling and followed interstate 75 until it intersected with highway 72 heading West. We like to keep emergency landing areas within reach as much as is possible so by staying near roads in heavily forested areas, we kept our options open.
 
As we arrived at Traverse City on the shores of Lake Michigan we were directed to air taxi behind a parked airliner and on to Harbor Air, the local FBO where we were met by Joe's wife Dee. It was a short drive to their absolutely gorgeous Victorian home where Dee broiled Salmon with all of the trimmings for our lunch.
 
With the helicopter and crew adequately fueled we launched to the North and flew along the sandy beach of Lake Michigan. It was another gorgeous flight back to Houghton Lake where we refueled. As we entered the FBO we were met with the distinct odor of smoked salmon. The FBO manager had just pulled two large trays of smoked salmon out of his smoker and of course we enjoyed some free samples.
 
On the last leg of the trip we flew directly out to the shore of Lake Huron and then followed the shoreline just offshore, what a view. As the sun was getting low on the horizon, we did an autorotation back to the runway of Browne airport and put the helicopter to bed for the winter.
 
I am often asked how I can fly in a helicopter that someone else built. The answer is: as long as the maintenance is performed as directed in the manuals, and a proper pre-flight is performed to insure that the helicopter is airworthy and safe to fly, I can have confidence that the helicopter will perform as it was designed to do.
 
Check your helicopter out thoroughly, fly safe, and enjoy those great flying machines

Summer is here and hopefully most of us are once again enjoying the exhilaration of piloting our ships around the patch. I was certainly glad to see the cold weather in the rear view mirror so that the doors could come off of the various helicopters that I have been privileged to fly. There is nothing quite like flying these little machines but there are several cautions that we as PIC's must always keep in mind when we fly with the doors removed.

I learned this lesson early in my flying career during my first solo altitude flight from my backyard helipad in California. I had just returned from Rotorway phase II flight training where I received a total of 7 hours of altitude training and 3 autorotation entries (the RWI flight instructor did the flare and recoveries as per their policy).
 
I had my solo-flight-to-altitude endorsement from the Factory school so why did I feel so ill-prepared to launch my pride and joy, my life long dream, my MAJOR financial investment, into the air for the first time above the 2 foot AGL hover height that had been it's domain since it's FAA Airworthiness Inspection 3 months prior? Perhaps it was the realization that I did not have enough flight experience in helicopters, and no altitude training in my own helicopter.

Just one mistake, one error in judgment, and all of my hard work building the helicopter could be lost. This is all too often the case when a student pilot with insufficient training becomes the initial test pilot of a helicopter that has never been flown either in hover or taken to altitude.
 
For three days straight I would pre-flight the helicopter, bring it into a hover and then chicken out. I would end up spending the entire flight session hovering and at the same time mentally beating myself up for not having the nerve to launch this untested helicopter into the pattern. After another near sleepless night I told myself that it was today or never. Once again I did a thorough pre-flight inspection, brought the little helicopter into a hover, and then slowly began to ease it forward.

There it was, that little shudder of passing into Effective Translational Lift (ETL). A little bit of forward cyclic and I continued to accelerate and climb. Oh yeah, remember the height velocity diagram, stay out of the un-shaded portion to keep everything safe, what were those numbers again?. "Here come the power lines, remember to always head directly for the pole". I could still hear Stretch Wolter(in the old days he was the chief instructor and DPE - Designated Pilot Examiner) remind me as I approached them.
 
After passing directly over the power line support tower and crossing the county road I was now climbing through 200' AGL and starting to relax. My wife Sheila was standing in the bed of our company dump truck with the video camera recording this momentous event. Just as I was starting to feel like I was doing pretty well with this altitude flying, out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the passenger side rear seat cushion (the early Execs had separate back and seat pads) detached from the Velcro attachments and fell face down onto the bottom cushion.

Now that really scared me! I had been warned that if anything left the cabin out the open doorway, it most likely would find it's way into the tail rotor. Should that happen, a very rapid chain of events would most likely take place that would include the loss of one tail rotor blade causing a grossly out of balance tail rotor, resulting in the loss of the rearmost portion of the tail boom. Once that happened the helicopter would become way out of the CG envelope and would become a large lawn dart and the end of one not-so-experienced future wanabe helicopter pilot.
 
With that thought in mind I knew that I had to grab that seat cushion before it blew out the doorway, but how to do that? Obviously both of my hands were fully occupied. I tried to quickly let go of the cyclic with my right hand to snatch the cushion but that didn't work. My experience level was so low that I could not take my hand off the cyclic and grab it with my left hand due to the death grip that held it there. As I was trying to figure out the proper course of action, the seat cushion began to vibrate toward the open doorway.
 
Panic filled my mind and I knew that unless I did something, and it had better be the right thing, I was about to die. I forced myself to momentarily let go of the cyclic with my right hand and grabbed it with my left and just as I was reaching for the cushion, a gust of wind took it out the doorway. I snatched the cyclic back and braced for the inevitable lawn dart scenario. Nothing happened! For some reason the cushion missed the tail rotor and I was still flying, sort of.
 
Now to find the cushion. It had fallen out over a large 800 acre pasture so I circled and looked for it. From 200 feet up I could not locate the cushion in the tall grass. I definitely did not feel at home up there at 200 feet circling and looking at the ground so I descended and brought the helicopter into a hover, now that was more like it, I could do that!

I hovered around the pasture for several minutes and finally found the wayward seat back cushion laying amongst a pile of sheep droppings. After landing, retrieving the cushion, brushing it off, and this time securing it properly under my own seat cushion, I lifted off to head back to my home and hanger, I had experienced enough excitement for the day.
 
The next challenge, how to bring the helicopter into the narrow piece of property that I had never approached before. Let's see, I had been told to always approach into the wind. The wind was blowing across the narrowest dimension of the property from the south. Funny, it had not seemed narrow at all when I was hovering those 20 hours all over every square inch of it. Now it looked like a strip of Christmas ribbon.

I began my approach at 65 mph as I has been taught during my factory training and always landing on a long airport with plenty of room to slow down. Next I passed over the other set of power lines (directly over the pole, of course) and began my descent. Unfortunately there was no where near enough room to bring the helicopter to a hover much less slow it down to ETL before I got to the neighbors house.(Of course I can do it now but with my 7 hours of forward flight training, my skill level just was not there yet).
 
Stretch had told me that the approach was to be made at 65mph and then slowly decrease the airspeed over the RUNWAY as the altitude was decreased. In the 7 hours at Rotorway Phase II training, we had never performed an approach to any landing that was not over the very long runway of Chandler airport. Also, I had never been taught how to do a Quick Stop to rapidly decrease the forward speed of the helicopter.

My wife continued to film my flybys that she assumed were for her benefit, she was so proud of me. Meanwhile I decided that after 2 near misses of the neighbors 2 story house directly in my flight path, I needed to do something to get this helicopter on the ground before I ran it out of fuel. This time I slowed it down prior to crossing the power lines and was able to neatly bring it into a hover directly over the helipad. I learned several lessons from that first solo flight to altitude. The first being to always be 100% certain that all items in the helicopter are secure and that there is no possibility that anything can exit the cabin to be caught in the tail rotor. I was lucky on that first flight and vowed that I would never allow myself to be in that situation again.
 
The second lesson that I learned was that I needed more flight training before I launched into the skies again. I promptly hired a Rotorway-Experienced flight instructor by the name of Jim Sagerser to come to my location and we worked on approaches, departures, quick stops, and autorotations, straight-in, 90 degree, and 180 degree autos until I could do them proficiently every time. Now here it is nearly 35 years later and I find myself doing the same thing, providing flight instruction to a student who realizes that he is not prepared to test fly his new helicopter.
 
As I wrote this article I was on an American Airlines flight to California to dynamically balance, test fly, and then instruct a student who rolled his helicopter after 3 years of intensive construction work followed by 10 hours of Phase I factory training. He had no prior helicopter flight training until he attended the factory school. After 10 hours of factory flight training he received his solo-to-hover endorsement. He returned home to his brand new helicopter. He was now a TEST PILOT on a never-before-flown helicopter, a recipe for disaster.

As he gingerly lifted the helicopter into a hover the helicopter felt completely different than the one he had flown at the factory school. It yawed to the left and the tail rotor contacted the ground resulting in an un-commanded spin to the left followed by a dynamic rollover. As Tony crawled from the wreckage fuel spilled onto the red hot exhaust and ignited. Tony emptied several fire extinguishers onto the flames but they were not enough to extinguish the fire. As he stood back and watched his labor of love burn into a sagging framework of metal tubing and a puddle of bright aluminum that was once his engine, he determined that he would rebuild and then he would get thorough flight training in his own helicopter before flying it himself.
 
Once the fire was out, the only thing salvageable was the stainless steel transponder antenna. Over the last three years he built a new Exec 162 around that original transponder antenna and going to first inspect his helicopter, then help him with the rigging and balancing of the rotor system and controls, then test fly it for him, and finally provide him with the flight instruction that he needed. This time he wanted to know how to fly this second Rotorway that he built with 100% certainty that he can control it before he once again tries solo flight.
 
Let's summarize this unfortunate chain of events:
1. Several years and many thousands of $$$$ building the helicopter
2. Minimal flight training but having a hover endorsement nonetheless
3. Beginning the first ever test flight of a new helicopter that has never been flown
4. Lift the helicopter off the ground
5. Experience a Dynamic rollover
6. Subsequent fire consumes all but the transponder antenna
7. Spends several years building another helicopter around the original antenna
8. Get proper hover training after the ship is professionally flight tested rigged, and balanced.
( Tony now has several years and many fun-filled hours flying his Rotorway around the northern California area).
 
One service that is very critical is proper rigging and dynamic balancing of the main and tail rotor systems prior to flight training. Since I began offering dynamic balancing and then test flying each helicopter before we began flight training, that training has been so much more enjoyable with a properly rigged and smooth-running ship.
 
Here is a list of definite Do's to remember regarding your newly built and inspected experimental helicopter.
 
1. Do get proper training prior to flying your newly built helicopter including many autorotations. These should include straight in, 90 degree, and 180 autos so that the helicopter can be turned into the wind for landing should a power or drive train failure occur.
 
3. Insure that you have secured everything in the cabin prior to flight. Brief you passenger regarding loose items. Anything in the pockets or on the belt that could possibly either exit out the door or jam a flight control. A cell phone, wallet, sweater, knee board, sectional chart, manual, etc could blow out that open door and take out your helicopter and your life. A wallet can jam the collective lever. A cell phone or camera can fall below the collective preventing full down movement should the need arise to drop the collective for a descent or autorotation.
 
Dan Van Duesen nearly lost his beloved Taz (Exec Extraordinary) when he lifted off with a cameraman from the factory during the RWI Grand opening. The camera which hung by a strap from the neck of the cameraman slipped down behind the cyclic and when the cyclic was eased forward and the helicopter began moving, the camera slipped down even further and prevented any aft cyclic movement. We watched as Dan's helicopter raced toward the parked airplanes and finally slid to a stop as Dan used his skill to do a run-on landing, a dicey maneuver in a Rotorway helicopter without the extended skids and skid shoes.

You should get into the habit of always using a written check list to perform your pre-flight and pre-boarding inspections because it is easy to forget a crucial step if trying to do them from memory. Be careful, do a thorough pre-flight inspection, perform a proper pre-boarding(walk-around) inspection prior to every flight, secure your cabin and passenger of loose items, brief your passengers, and then get out there and enjoy your helicopters. You have a privilege that many dream of but only a few are able to enjoy.

If anyone is not flying with the longer aluminum skids with the steel reinforcement on both sides, they need to in my opinion and experience. 
 
Only days after writing the November article I was flying with a student here at my training center in Missouri. He was beginning his phase two flight training and was very excited to begin practicing autos. Larry had taken his 162f to Mark Peterson for his hover training and Mark had installed one of the first cog drives to be installed on Rotorway helicopters, it was produced by John Spurling and called the Pro-Drive. The kit was a new cog belt, Drive sprocket for the 30mm secondary shaft, and the large cog sprocket that mounted on the main shaft to replace the chain drive sprocket. Removing the chain drive opened up the access to the engine compartment, cut the weight of the chain out, and got rid of the ever-leaking chain bath that would leak chain oil over the drive belts causing them to slip. 

The instructions for installing the Pro-Drive gave the set up tension that must be held on the cog belt and this tension was accomplished by shimming the secondary back enough to hold that tension at 70 degrees F. Mark set the cog drive up correctly and then he provided Larry with his hover training. Larry then took his helicopter home and practiced his hovering until he was confident and proficient in his skill set. 

He called me and asked me if I would give him his phase two altitude training as I was closer than Mark and I agreed to do so. I had not seen the new cog drive before so I gave it a really good inspection for my own learning. It looked great. The helicopter was in my heated hangar during my initial inspection and once I determined that all was good we rolled it outside into the cold winter air. After fueling we got in, started the engine, and lifted to a hover. Larry showed me that he had achieved the needed hover skills so we decided to take off and head to the local airport for some initial pattern work. 

As we were climbing out and increasing our airspeed the helicopter wanted to nose over and it took progressively more aft cyclic to keep the nose from dropping. I informed Larry that this was not a desirable condition so I turned the helicopter around and headed back to the hangar. Upon inspection I noticed that the horizontal stabilizer was set at an angle with the leading edge up higher than the specs called for. We modified the mount holes to allow the stabilizer cord line to be in line with the top of the tail boom. This should give us a good cyclic position in forward flight.  

The day before we had installed the extended reinforced skids and flipped the front landing gear leg for more support in case of a run on landing.

As we were beginning our next take off from my helipad, we were accelerating through about 10 to 12 mph and were about 5 feet skid height when all at once the engine raced, the ship did an immediate rotation to the right and dropped. This one was a real surprise and happened in a hear-beat.
 
I informed Larry “I have it” at which time he let go of the controls. Larry and I had just installed the extended reinforced skids with the front gear leg reversed and it was what saved the ship. As the ship dropped and spun I to the right, chopped the throttle, applied full up collective, cyclic opposite to the direction that we were traveling, and full left anti-torque pedal. The helicopter dropped onto the front of the left skid, where the stock skid will snap off, and pivoted around to the 180 degree position of our original take off direction of travel.

We were then sliding backwards and the ship rocked back onto the tail rotor and slid to a stop. We surely would have rolled over had it not been for the extended reinforced skids which allowed the ship to pivot the 180 degrees to where the tail boom acted as an outrigger preventing the ship from rolling over backwards.
 
Upon inspection we found that the new factory cog belt with only 21 hours on it had snapped. This was the first instance of a ship equipped with the tensioned cog drive that I was aware of the cog belt breaking. When the belt broke, the power to the main rotor was disconnected so all of the engine power went to the tail rotor, snapping the nose of the ship 90 degrees to the right. We were very fortunate to have not experienced a rollover but we sure came close.

I have included several photos of Larry’s ship following the belt break. There is some damage but not nearly as much as would occur from a rollover. The belt manufacturer engineers stated that the break was most likely from the belt being run with too little tension allowing the cogs to ride up the driving cog wheel which can hyper extend the reinforcing fibers causing a belt failure. 

 

Shortly after this incident I received a call from Bruce in Main. He told me that the exact same thing happened to his AP cog drive belt as he was in a hover and setting down. He told me that the hard set down also damaged his ships tail rotor and tail boom as well as the landing gear and skids but he was also able to keep the ship upright.

The reason the cog belt broke was the change in temperature in the operating environment. When Mark set up the cog belt to spec it was set up at 70 degrees f. When I checked it in my heated shop it was at 70 degrees F. We then rolled the helicopter outside into the 40 degree f air and began our flight training. In the cold air the large aluminum cog wheel would shrink relaxing the tension on the cog belt. Pro-Drive's response was that we should re-shim the secondary for the cooler temps to maintain proper cog belt tension. That is a royal pain. 

I did some research and found that cog belts in this application should always be run with a tensioner to keep the cog belt at the proper tension at all operational temperature ranges. From that point on we began installing tensioners onto all of the cog systems as they were converted from the original chain drives. 
 
 As always, only fly your ships over areas that are safe to auto into. If this should happen at altitude, it would give the pilot more time to get to the ground safely with no damage.

In my previous article that appeared in the November issue of Experimental Helicopter magazine, I made the following statement: “I would like to state that this year I have had fewer in-flight failures than in any of the past 10 years.” Up to the time that I wrote that article I had experienced one engine failure due to a valve rocker falling off of the valve and push rod (this has been about a once a year event for me and is an issue that we solved in the new VPS engine that was very similar to Joe Huff's engine that he is now building. NO MORE VALVE ROCKER FAILURES!!!!!!!

In the case of that engine failure I was able to auto the helicopter safely to the ground, we had a short walk back to the hangar to get some tools, re-positioned the rocker and adjusted the valve lash, and then continued my student’s flight training.

I experienced another engine failure that same year while instructing in Texas when the crank sensor failed. The FADEC computers faulted from FADEC 1 to FADEC 2 which activates the secondary fuel injectors in the manifold. This is not the best design because the engine can only run for a limited time on these secondary injectors before the spark plugs foul with carbon to the point the engine looses power and quits.

In this instance I was with my phase 2 student Mike Sidler whi has recently joined us on Rotorwayforums.com. We were doing altitude training and as we turned final for an approach to a hover over a very muddy area about a mile from the airport, in fact, everything in that area of Texas was muddy with standing water due to the recent rains. When the computers faulted to FADEC 2 I told Mike that I was going to try to make it back to the airport where the ground was firm so that we would not have to try to find a way to recover the helicopter from the mire we were over. All I could think of was trying to convince a farmer to let us tear up his pastures as we would attempt to traverse his property with recovery vehicles.

Knowing that I had about 500 feet of altitude and a mile to fly to get to the airport where there was some firm ground, I thought that my student and I had a good shot at making it there safely. As we neared the airport the engine began to run progressively rougher as the spark plugs were getting fouled up with carbon. I kept the ship over open areas for the inevitable autorotation that I knew I would need to execute at any time.

The extremely rich mixture of the FADEC 2 injectors was causing quite a reduction in the engine power. I needed to maintain 70 mph so we continually lost altitude as the airport area got closer. By the time we were adjacent to the taxiway of the very busy airport where Mike’s ship is based, I informed him that we would keep the ship over the grass next to the taxiway so that when we set down, we would not block the taxiway. By this time we were down to about 100 feet AGL with full throttle, and descending.

Mike was ready, I told him to let me have all of the controls because we were about to run out of engine power as we neared our intended landing spot. We were just about 100 yards from our normal landing area when the engine coughed and died. At this point we were about 30 ft. AGL and still traveling at around 70 mph airspeed. Mike and I had been practicing quick stops for the past few days so I informed him that we were going to just do one now.

We were all set up, proper altitude, proper air speed, extended reinforced front skids with flipped front landing gear bow, what more could we ask for (other than an engine system that would not be so prone to failure)?

When the engine quit, all that was needed was to drop the collective, haul back on the cyclic for a nice 70mph flare, settle, level the ship, and slide it onto the soft grass that borders the taxiway, very nice and really not a big deal if you are all set for it. We landed successfully with very little forward speed and all was good. Following the rotor spin down, we walked to the hangar, which was just about 100 yard further than we would have had to walk if we had made it back to our intended landing spot. We got his car, a rope, the ground wheels, and returned to the helicopter. In a few minutes we were pulling the ship down the taxiway to the hangar.

It took a few minutes to isolate the problem, one of the crank sensors had failed. Mike called Rotorway and Robin sent a new set to us by overnight currier. The next morning we had the new crank sensors, installed them, and continued Mikes training with over 200 autorotations (practice ones only as his ship flew flawlessly from then on). Mike told me that those autos now had new meaning seeing that if done correctly, and if equipped with the proper landing gear and skid configuration, a touchdown autorotation was not such a big deal or something to be feared.

I have pondered writing about this particular student for awhile but I think that some of you might find it entertaining and educational to read. This is a true account and I have shared it many times with other students over the years. 

About 15 years ago I got a call from a 162f owner who informed me that his 162F that he built was already test flown by a Rotorway professional and now he was ready for flight training. We set a date and I purchased the airline tickets to fly from my home airport in Springfield Missouri to LAX where he would meet me. I was waiting for my flight departing SGF when I received a phone call from this client in which he asked me where he could rent or borrow a main rotor blade for his helicopter. Huh?

Why do you need to rent a main rotor blade? I asked. He responded that since we needed to be at an airport for flight training he used his tractor to lift the helicopter onto his equipment trailer. As he was pulling the trailer out of his driveway on the way to the airport the main rotor blades rotated enough to catch an oak tree buckling one main rotor blade. If he could only borrow someone's blade we could continue with our training plans. 

I informed him that owners do not loan out their main rotor blades and that he would need to purchase a new one from the factory for me to build. I also informed him that he may have bent the main rotor mast as well but that would need to be checked when I arrived. I cancelled my trip and told him to let me know when he received the replacement rotor blade. Several weeks later he informed me that he had the replacement blade and was ready for me to travel out to California. After giving him very specific instructions about how to correctly transport the helicopter he decided that he would wait for my arrival so that I could transport it myself. 

When my schedule had an opening I made the fight to LAX, my client met me there and on the way north to his home he told me all about his wonderful helicopter that he had built so meticulously. He lived up in the mountains overlooking the central valley and as we pulled into his yard there sat his 162F in the parking area in front of a small garden shed. I inquired as to where he had built the helicopter, there was no shop building on the property that I could see. He told me that he built it right there, on the asphalt parking space, in the open air with no protection. 

At this point I was really questioning why I had agreed to take this owner on as a client but now that I was here I would help him out. As I gave the helicopter a first over all look, I noticed that the collective lever was stuck in the full down position and I could not raise it. He was surprised because the other expert that he had hired was able to hover it only about 12 months prior to my arrival. So after that expert had hovered the helicopter it had set out in the weather another winter. We loaded the ship onto his trailer minus the other main rotor blade, properly secured and supported the tail boom and drove it over the mountain to the nearest airport. 

Once we got the helicopter into the rented hangar, I began a thorough inspection. I informed my client that it would take me a day to build the new main rotor blade and to do the static lead/lag and balancing so he decided to leave me in the hangar and he would go home to take a nap. First thing was to get the new blade set up and glued so that the blade epoxy would be set by the following day. Next I discovered that the main rotor shaft under the boot and swashplate was so rusted that the swashplate could not move up or down on shaft. 

Using some emery cloth on the rusted shaft I could see that the rust had deeply pitted the shaft to the point of it being un-airworthy. I ordered a new main shaft and pulled his shaft system out of the helicopter to work on it. Robin sent a new shaft next day air so over the next several days I was able to get the new blade finished, painted, installed on the new shaft and was able to get the helicopter ready for dynamic blade balancing, lead lag adjustments and tracking. Overall it took about a week to get the helicopter ready to fly. It needed rework of the wiring system, installation of the fuel tank inner washer to prevent the fuel fittings from falling out, and many other upgrades. 

Once I was finished with all of the needed work my client agreed to join me at the airport for the first hover. All went as planned and I was able to get the helicopter ready for his hover training. The work that I did took the entire week that I had scheduled and I had another student that was scheduled for the next day so we were not able to begin this owner's hover training that first week. With the helicopter secured safely in a sealed hangar we re-scheduled my next trip out.

The day arrived for my trip back to LAX where I was greeted by my client. On the drive back to his home he was very excited about me flying his helicopter over the mountain range to the hospital where he worked. He had gained approval for me to land on the hospital helipad at night and then I would fly the helicopter back to his home in the dark to his unlit driveway. I could not believe what he was asking me to do. This helicopter had never flown to altitude much less it was not equipped for night flight over mountainous terrain. I declined his offer and told him that we needed to get more time on the helicopter before taking it to altitude. He was disappointed as we continued the drive to his home on the mountain. 

When we pulled into the driveway there sat his helicopter uncovered on the asphalt parking area. He told me that the hangar that he had borrowed needed to be used by the owner so he brought the helicopter home. I informed him that the helicopter cannot live outside and needed to be kept in a hangar, not parked out in the weather. We called around and found a vacant hangar at an airport down in the valley about 20 miles from his home. We transported the helicopter to the new hangar and began his hover training. 

This student was a slow learner so it took all week and he still was not at the point that I could sign him off for solo hover flight. We scheduled another trip for my return and after that week I was able to endorse him for solo hover. 

About a year later he called me asking if I would provide him with additional altitude training. He informed me that he had been flying with another flight instructor around the local airport and that he needed more altitude time, the other flight instructor had decided that they were not a good fit so he declined further instruction....wise man. 

I agreed to instruct him so once again I made the trip out to LAX and when he picked my up at the airport he told me that he had the helicopter fueled and prepped and wanted me to fly us out to the Pacific coast so that he could take photos of the ocean waves from the air. I only had his word on his altitude training and told him that we would need to see how the week progressed before attempting a cross country flight over two mountain ranges. 

We arrived at the airport and I inspected the helicopter. Previously I had set up the secondary angles and all of the other rigging for safe flight. I made the mistake of assuming all of that had not changed. I asked him if he had done any work on the helicopter and he told me that it was just like I had left it and I took his word for that. I asked him where his fuel dip hose was and he told me that I did not need it as he had just filled both tanks after his last flight. I informed him that since I could not see the fuel level, i needed to verify how much fuel was in the tanks. I found a piece of wire and used it to dip the fuel tanks and found only about a gallon of fuel in them. 

"OH Yeah, I forgot that we flew one more time after I fueled up". The fuel pumps were about 50 yards from his hangar so we pushed the helicopter across the tarmac and refueled. We started the engine, it ran fine, so we pulled it into a hover and I had him demonstrate his hover skills to me. He did an acceptable job of hovering and he informed me that he had flown about ten hours with the other flight instructor in the airport traffic pattern. I had him hover out to the taxiway and asked him to demonstrate his takeoff and climb while staying in the pattern just like he had done with the other flight instructor. 

His takeoff went fine but as we gained altitude the taxiway ended below us and beyond the airport boundary was a huge vineyard with ten foot tall steel posts supporting the grape trellises. As he began to fly over the vineyard I questioned his route. He informed me that his other flight instructor had him fly straight out over the vineyards until he reached 500' above the ground. As he was responding I guided the helicopter into a left turn explaining that we do not fly over hazardous landing areas at low altitude if we have other options in case of an engine failure. There was a canal with a levy road along the bank running under us and I explained that should we have an in flight emergency, if we were over the levy road we could auto rotate onto the dirt surface. 

As we continued our climb following the levy road I pointed out a bare patch of ground ahead where about an acre of grape vines had been removed. I told him that the clear area was a good place in case of an emergency..BANG! We were about 250' above the ground when suddenly there was a loud bang from behind us and the helicopter nose jumped to the right and the engine RPM raced. We were in a climb under maximum power so the helicopter required a lot of right pedal to keep the nose straight. In a climb the main rotor pitch is increased so there is more drag than when in level flight.

In a climb the pilot has about a second to realize that something has happened and to immediately slam the collective to the floor to remove the positive pitch on the main rotor blades as the RPM plummets , pull back on the cyclic to allow the under side of the rotor disc to grab the on-rushing air to establish and maintain the un-powered rotor RPM. I headed straight for the open area were the vines had been removed, initiated a very aggressive flare, leveled the helicopter and set it down into the soft dirt with no forward ground speed. 

As we sat on the ground with the engine idling and the rotors winding down he asked me what had happened. I had no clue. I explained to him that had we not turned to stay over open areas and had maintained his original course over the ten foot tall grape trellises we would most likely have been impaled by metal stakes. His response was "I am paying you darn good money to make sure that we are safe". I was shook but pleased that I had been able to establish a good auto and set down with no damage to the helicopter.

What had happened? I removed the rear dog house cover and immediately saw that the cog belt had come off of the rear driving sprocket and was leaning up against the side of the doghouse. There was a slice about half way through the width of the cog belt and the anti-excursion ring that is bolted to the top of the driving sprocket was missing. All 5 of the screws that held the anti-excursion ring in place were sheared off at the top of the sprocket. Now I knew what had happened to disconnect the engine power from the rotor system but why did it happen? The cog drive system had proven near bullet proof once we started using the cog belt tensioners. I found the missing anti-excursion ring wedged between the back side of the pilot side fuel tank and the frame tube, it was still in good condition. 

We were able to haul the helicopter back to the hangar that evening and decided to start our investigation the following morning. That night I went through every possible scenario that I could think of and decided that the only way such a failure could occur was if the secondary upper shims had been removed allowing the secondary to tip forward allowing the cog belt to ride up the sprocket with enough force to rip the anti-excursion ring off and the belt to come off the sprocket getting torn on the way off. 

The next morning we took the rest of the panels off of the helicopter. I got my digital protractor out and measured tilt angle of the secondary shaft in relation to the main rotor shaft. I had originally set it at 0.1 degrees aft and 0.1 to the pilot side. It now measured 0.7 degrees forward and centered laterally. It had been drastically changed. I asked my student what he had done during my absence of around a year. "Nothing, I have not touched it. You set it up, you must have set it up wrong, this is on you". 

On closer inspection I noticed that the two shims that I had installed between the upper secondary bearing and the frame cross tube were missing. The only way that they could be absent is if someone had unbolted the secondary and removed the shims which are held in place by the two bolts that hold the upper bearing in place. There was a small workbench in the hangar and as I approached it I saw the two shims sitting on top. I asked my student how those shims got off the helicopter and onto his workbench. "Oh, yeah, I forget that I changed out the main drive belts because they were at their 5  year life limit. I must have forgot to put the shims back in".

Had he told me that when I arrived and asked him what work he had done on the helicopter I would have known to check his secondary alignment to verify that it was correct. His failure to install the shims nearly cost him his ship and had the other instructor been with him flying over the vineyard on climb out, as was his procedure, they both very well have been impaled on those stakes. 

The story with this client goes on with more unbelievable events.

If you are interested in hearing about them let me know by replying to this thread and I will write a further post.

In 1996 we had a huge medical debt as a result of my wife having a cardiac arrest, ambulance ride to the local hospital, the helicopter air evac to Stanford Medical Center followed by numerous surgeries and two weeks in the hospital at Stanford. As a result we had to come up with a large amount of money by selling off assets including our Rotorway Helicopter. The buyer gave a small deposit and would send us the remainder in a timely manner, so he said and we shook hands on the deal. 

When the payments did not arrive we found that the employer information as well as addresses that the buyer provided were fictional. He had taken the helicopter and just disappeared and we were unable to trace where he had taken our helicopter. I am a trusting person and to me a verbal agreement and handshake mean a lot. I am finding out that some people are just not trustworthy.

For the next six years I continued my search for the helicopter with no luck. I knew that the thief wanted to get his helicopter rating so I periodically checked the FAA Airman's registry to see if his name came up and after 6 years it finally did. It gave his location and with the help of some great friends we were able to get his phone #. I called him and he told me that it was just a misunderstanding, he never intended to defraud me. I informed him that since he had taken the helicopter across state lines the federal government would be notified of the circumstances. 

Upon hearing that I was going to go forward with prosecution he told me that the helicopter was in a storage facility in Denver, gave me the code to get in and the combination to the pad lock on the storage locker. I immediately hooked my trailer up to my pickup and headed out for Denver with no verification that the helicopter was actually there, but he gave me his word on that. 

It was a 17 hour drive and I drove straight through trying to figure out how I was going to get the helicopter onto the auto trailer by myself if it was actually there. Just after sunrise I was about 90 miles east of Denver when I saw a pickup with trailer and another pickup on the trailer parked on the side of the interstate. A man stood on the side of the road waving his hat trying to flag down passing motorists and so I slowed down and parked in front of his truck. He told me that he had broken down the evening before and that it was a dead zone for his cell phone. No one would stop for him. His brother had broken down in the pickup on the trailer so this fellow drove out from Denver with his trailer to rescue his brother. 

Climbing that last hill the transmission had gone out of the towing pickup and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. He said that he had tried to wave down several highway patrol officers but they just went on by. It turns out that I was the only person to pull over for him in over 13 hours. He asked if I could give him a ride into Denver to get his big truck and long trailer, I was happy to help him 

During the ride in to Denver on I-70 he asked me what I was doing and I told him about the helicopter and where it was supposed to be. He replied tht that particular storage facility was just around the corner from his home. He told me not to worry about getting it loaded, he would handle that. By then he had cell service so he made some phone calls in Spanish as we approached Denver. He directed me to the storage yard and at the front gate were 10 very husky family members who hopped on the trailer as I attempted to use the code that I had been given, it worked. 

I pulled into the yard and located the storage locker and yet again to my surprise, the padlock combination worked. As I slid open the locker door there sat my little Rotorway 152. The main rotor blades were hung on the side wall of the locker and appeared to still be in good shape. The family crew literally picked the helicopter up by the skids and carried it onto the trailer for me. They strapped it down with my straps and supported the tail boom as I directed, they would not let me lift a finger. 

Once the helicopter was loaded the my previously stranded new friend told me to follow him. He drove me to a great restaurant, bought me a fantastic breakfast, then led me through town and onto the east bound freeway ramp toward home. He told me that he had prayed for someone to stop on the side of the interstate and I was the one who stopped, "you are my angel". I told him that I am no angle but was happy that I could help him out and that I was so blessed with how they all helped me load the helicopter and head for home. 

The photo above was taken when I arrived home with the Exec 152 on the trailer.

Above Scott is congratulated by Orv following his private pilot check ride. Way to go Scott!!

Scott Wrote: Fellow Rotorway Owner/Builders and student helicopter pilots, Orv Neisingh and Steve Foster offer us a real, enjoyable and fun option to complete your Oral Exam & Check-out Ride for Private Pilot Helicopter. Fly to Little Rock Arkansas and then drive 1 1/2 hours north/east to Searcy. Let Steve get you transitioned into flying his magnificent 1957 Bell 47 G2 & Orv will provide you the required (3) hours of prep-work for your check out ride. Steve is a certified Examiner in Helicopters and loves to fly all types of aircraft including fixed wing and Gyro's. You are going to be really busy your first full day, but the Bell 47 is easier to fly than a Rotorway, relax, stop over-controlling and let the Bell sort itself out. Truly an enjoyable experience.

Scott Worthington
Private Pilot Helicopter.

Scott went on to get his commercial helicopter rating and was qualified in the Robinson helicopters as well as other makes. Tragically he was flying his own helicopter (with no governor) and the Main rotor RPM decayed to the point of Rotor Stall/mast bump/tail boom separation causing the helicopter to come apart in the air, he did not survive. 

Remember that your ability to immediately enter and complete an autorotation is your lifeline to survival. If something goes wrong while you are flying, dump that collective immediatley, establish an good auto maintaining main rotor RPM, flare at the bottom ( Make it stop forward travel as much as possible) and land using the stored inertia of the main rotor system. Don't let something distract you to the point of main rotor RPM decay, that can kill you. IF IN DOUBT, AUTO OUT.

Poor quality video but great quality very tight restricted area 180 auto training. 

Here John is learning to perform autorotations in his 152 Exec. He now hosts the May Hay Day helicopter gathering in North Carolina and flies his Bell 47. The video is old but you get the gist.